No group has fared better under 14 years of Conservative government than pensioners. The triple lock (intended as a temporary measure when it was brought in by the coalition government) has ensured the state pension has steadily increased even as workers’ wages stagnated. Since it was introduced in 2011/12 it is estimated to have grown by £78 billion. On average, pensioners are statistically more likely to live in households with assets over £1 million than they are to live in poverty.
They somehow still managed to feel aggrieved. Jeremy Hunt’s main giveaway in the Spring Budget was a reduction in National Insurance – a tax that pensioners are already exempt from. This prompted Janet Street Porter (aged 77) on Loose Women to accuse Rishi Sunak of hating her age cohort. Yes: a cut in tax that could not be cut for pensioners, because pensioners don’t pay it, was framed as proof that Sunak and Hunt “hate” the elderly.
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